Medicos write to PM on not allowing test among NEET-qualified students

Kolkata: In an unprecedented move, five medical practitioners from across the country have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi against the Union Health Ministry's decision to not allow some of the medical colleges to conduct the second stage of screening test among the candidates who have qualified the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET).

In the letter, the doctors Dr Shankhadip Mula from Mumbai, Dr Jahangir Alam from Delhi, Dr Imtiaz Ali, Jamshedpur, Dr Amiya Kumar Maity and Dr Priyanka Maity from Kolkata urged the Prime Minister to give permission to all willing Medical Colleges/Institutes/Universities or the state governments to conduct a second stage screening test similar to what has been granted to the Armed Force Medical College (AFMC) Pune and to arrange proper software to fill the NEET (UG) 2018 application and also giving instruction to CBSE to correct all wrongly put information in additional FAQs.

It may be mentioned that the AFMC is the only institution in the country that has been given permission to conduct their own screening examination among the candidates who clear the NEET. While many other institutions who also urged for conducting a similar examination were denied permission. Various other states including Bengal expressed their interest to hold a screening examination among the NEET qualified candidates but they were not allowed to do so.

Institute like Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore, Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), St. John Medical College, CMC Ludhiana and few other states/universities who are willing to take a second and separate entrance examination of the NEET qualified students are not allowed to do so. CMC Vellore was successful to take a second stage Screening Test of NEET 2016 qualified students for their own admission, last year in 2017 the institute was restrained from doing the same.

The letter mentions as per the Information Bulletin page no – 07, NEET (UG) 2018 permission has been given to AFMC, Pune to conduct a second stage Screening Test among the NEET qualified students to prepare their own merit list for admission to undergraduate medical course for session 2018-19.